April

If February ate my lunch, April finished off my dinner and then cleaned out the pantry.  It was go, go go, starting with Easter.

 

Bunny pancakes!

 

Easter morning

 

I forgot to take a nice picture of everyone before church, which is what happens when we're trying to get to the 8:00 service and get back home to cook dinner for the whole family.  We had a good time, even if we had to hunt for eggs inside because of the rain.

 

Lunch on the go!

 

Movie time--I think from when we went to see Cinderella.

 

Jack and Hope in the swing we got for Dad when they were tiny.  They can still (just barely) get in it at the same time!

 

We went to Crystal Bridges for the Van Gogh to Rothko exhibit a few weeks ago.

 

The weather was beautiful and we got to spend some time on the trails.

 

We finished up our spring semester of co-op in April.  (This is Alice telling about a picture she made.)

 

One night Alice and I made pom pom animals while the boys watched Star Wars.

 

New swim caps!

 

The kids picked these beautiful flowers for me!

 

A couple of weeks ago we went to Pawnee to check out the Pawnee Bill Ranch for an upcoming MetroFamily article.

 

While we were (sort of) in the area, we stopped by Eskimo Joe's for lunch.

 

Alice is finally old enough for the program where kids read to therapy dogs, so she brought some of her books to practice.

 

The kids took a Tour de Chocolat class at the library and got free books and hot chocolate.

 

{Just being cute.}

 

The other day I noticed that Alice was dressed like the bunny on her shirt: pink glasses, necklace, and skirt.  Later she put on a bow, too.

 

Last week the kids tried out a homeschool art class at the OKCMOA.  The class was centered around Andy Warhol's athletes series and then the kids got to make their own silkscreen prints.  It was a lot of fun!

 

Playing in the creek after PE!

April was crazy busy, but we had a lot of fun.  I think May is going to be more of the same!

Happy Birthday, Boris!

 Today was Bobey's 14th birthday!

We made him a sunshine cake (he loves to stretch out in a good sunbeam) and sang to him.  He promptly threw up on the dining room rug.  Apparently you can't party too hard when you're fourteen.  Happy birthday anyway to the best cat ever!

Poetry Month

April is Poetry Month, so my big plan is to put a new poem up each day for us to read and, hopefully, enjoy.  While I was looking around to find some different ones that would be good, I came across this one that seemed especially appropriate for this blog!

Little Things

by Julia A. Carney*

 

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the beauteous land.

And the little moments,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

So our little errors

Lead the soul away,

From the paths of virtue

Into sin to stray.

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Make our earth an Eden,

Like the heaven above. 

*I have also seen this poem attributed to Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, but I have found it credited to Julia Carney more often.

Artist Study: Paul Klee

 

 In March we learned about Paul Klee.

 

 

 We read the usual biography as well as The Cat and the Bird, which is a story based on his paintings.  The Dreaming Pictures book talks about different pieces he did.

 We had a lot of fun trying out different projects!  This one from Art Projects for Kids is based on this painting.

 The next week we tried another one from the same blog based on this picture.

 Alice's final picture!

 I found this book at the library (and had to return it early, so please excuse the poor picture!) and used it for a Klee project--it does have projects for lots of other artists, too!

 First we drew a simple face on the paper, outlined it, and covered it with wet tissue paper.

 The project was based on this Klee painting.

 I'm not sure if it's the tissue paper we used (though I checked and it didn't say anything about it being color fast) or the paper, but there wasn't much color transfer!

 We finished the month with this project based on Klee's Harmony paintings.

If you're looking for an artist to start with, Klee would be a great one!  We enjoyed all of the books and projects we tried!

Happy Birthday, Hobo!

It's hard to believe that it was six months ago that this puppy showed up.

 

The kids decided that we would celebrate his birthday on March 23, which we later found out was Puppy Day, so that worked out well!

 

Yesterday on his birthday he got a new collar and a smiley squeak toy.  I will admit that I only bought the toy because I thought it would be really funny looking, but he really enjoys it--though I'm not sure he's ever actually held it in his mouth like it's pictured on the packaging.  (Also, don't order this from Amazon.  We picked Hobo's up at Walmart for about $3.)

 

We celebrated today with a bone cake.

Our neighbors--the very, very nice ones who are letting Hobo stay in their kennel--came over for dinner.

 

They even brought him a present!

Honestly, having a dog is a huge pain right now, but he is so good natured and the kids love him so much that I am glad we have him!

Spring (Break) Week

 Last week the public schools were out on spring break.  We kept on mostly as usual, but we had some extra fun, too, like going to the park.

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 We had our traditional rainbow jello...

...and mint shakes!

 

 In school we did an archaeology dig.

 

 

 We also did another Paul Klee project for art.

 Alice used her giant number line to work on adding bigger numbers.

 Friday we took a tour of the Blue Bell factory!

 At the end of the tour we got samples.  Both of the kids picked Blue Monster!

Since Alice conquered her first books, she has been practicing them over and over for everyone!